So, talking about it at the source and one of the web's largest forum sites just doesn't make sense to you?

Netflix and Youtube are the ONLY streaming sites that are effected for me and many others. Switching to a non Comcast connection has perfectly fast speeds for both. That means that the issue with with Comcast.

Here's some more. And people who fixed their issues by hiding the traffic from Comcast.

One <- fixed after VPN

Two

Three <- fixed after proxy

Four

Five <- speed tests during and not during streaming to verify

There's plenty more. But if you want to call me a liar then fark you. It happens every single day (that I use Netflix). Using a method to hide where the traffic is coming from stops the slowdown from happening. Adding another place to route where the traffic goes before it reaches you makes it go faster. Go ahead and handwave that away if you want. After this, I wont be responding to you. Call it running away if you want. I don't really care. I wont waste my time on fruitless endeavors. It's not worth even the remote possibility of getting annoyed over.

Not calling you a liar but you are linking to blogs and forums.. (some years old)... Why is no legit tech site covering this blatant in-justice then?

I just started streaming House Of Cards... This is my network activity.. Netflix is the only thing running..

madgonad:I imagine that what is happening is that heavy users are flagged and when traffic is heavy (evening) their IPs are throttled on high bandwidth URLs. It is a subtle way of reducing demand on their network. It has legitimate purposes in wireless where spectrum is an absolute limitation, while a cable company can just split the node if demand increases in a certain area.

What, you thought there wouldn't be consequences for voting GOP?

Sorry, I'm a Dem and am currently getting farked by ACA, so yeah, i see your point.

CtrlAltDestroy:Comcast has been doing this shiat for a long time now. Go ahead and google "comcast throttle Netflix". They aren't throttling it by textbook means but they leave the system in such a way that it get's terribly slow. Using a proxy/VPN will restore the speed. I can tether through my phone and have perfect HD streams. I go back to Comcast and it's barely 480p. Although my phone is a Verizon phone so now that trick probably wont work.

I'm currently grandfathered into unlimited data with my Verizon phone. If I want to upgrade they'll force me out of that. So, I don't know what to do when I decide I want a new phone. Does anyone offer an actual unlimited data plan?

Fark Verizon and fark Comcast.

I have a "choice" between Comcast and shiatty AT&T DSL. Although apparently AT&T is running fiber to my area. I should probably look into that. Anyone have any experience or knowledge with AT&Ts fiber service?

No one offers unlimited data anymore. I went to upgrade my phone and was told, "Hey, your unlimited data plan doesn't exist anymore." I said that's fine, you'll just grandfather me in like always. He then goes on to say, "Not anymore, you can get the 6GB plan."

I barely use 1GB a month anyway since I don't tether or use it as a hotspot.

I have it on good authority that Comcast just sucks. FIOS not available where I live so I can't compare to that.

I'm so much happier with my slower, cheaper and more reliable and consistent DSL. I can still stream everything I want. If I have problems it's usually the server that's sending me the shiat that's at fault.

Comcast can go fark themselves for all I care.

Seriously, a lot of people get stars in their eyes when they hear advertised speeds, but most people are maybe streaming a little video and looking at Facebook and Twitter. You don't need farking 35 MBps to readd 140 character messages, dumbass. You don't even need it to stream movies from Netflix.

And Comcast's answer to everything is to send you a new modem or a technician which is a major farking hassle and never resolves the problem.

Sorry, I know this thread is supposed to be about Verizon. I have no problems with Verizon's phone service, but then again I don't stream movies to my farking mobile phone.

This is why I'm glad I work for RCN. We don't throttle, we don't "traffic shape", none of that crap.

There's a reason, folks, behind the throttling and crap. Here's the rationale behind it. All the local connections in an area merge into a larger pipe on the way to the fiber optic backbone. Let's call this collection point a "node" for the sake of ease here. Now, your average provider, given a node capable of handling 300 local connections, will sell 400 or 450 connection to that node, with the aim of maximizing profits and the pretense that it's OK because not everyone's going to be surfing at any given time. Technically true, but that's where you start seeing peak hour issues. Everyone gets home, and starts watching cat videos off YouTube or whatever, and suddenly your 50 Mbit connection is acting like a 5. So to make it look like their service doesn't suck as bad to their average customer, they'll throttle the piss out of their heaviest users. The way RCN does it, is if that node can handle 300 connections, we sell 200. You wanna throw on bittorrent and peg that connection to the red, and leave it that way for a few months? Go ahead. Only reaction on our side of the house is going to be a cursory check, at most, to see that your bandwidth is fine. If more people need connections in that area, we go out there and build another freaking node. Working for a non-big-three company is great.

/loves getting calls where people pussyfoot around the "bittorrent" or "peer to peer file sharing" words//so I'll say 'em first///Also, fark Verizon and their anti-net-neutrality campaign

CtrlAltDestroy:Comcast has been doing this shiat for a long time now. Go ahead and google "comcast throttle Netflix". They aren't throttling it by textbook means but they leave the system in such a way that it get's terribly slow. Using a proxy/VPN will restore the speed. I can tether through my phone and have perfect HD streams. I go back to Comcast and it's barely 480p. Although my phone is a Verizon phone so now that trick probably wont work.

I'm currently grandfathered into unlimited data with my Verizon phone. If I want to upgrade they'll force me out of that. So, I don't know what to do when I decide I want a new phone. Does anyone offer an actual unlimited data plan?

Fark Verizon and fark Comcast.

I have a "choice" between Comcast and shiatty AT&T DSL. Although apparently AT&T is running fiber to my area. I should probably look into that. Anyone have any experience or knowledge with AT&Ts fiber service?

If by upgrade you're referring to your phone, if you purchase a new phone entirely out of pocket you won't be forced out of the plan.

skeevy420:ThatBillmanGuy: CtrlAltDestroy: Comcast has been doing this shiat for a long time now. Go ahead and google "comcast throttle Netflix". They aren't throttling it by textbook means but they leave the system in such a way that it get's terribly slow. Using a proxy/VPN will restore the speed. I can tether through my phone and have perfect HD streams. I go back to Comcast and it's barely 480p. Although my phone is a Verizon phone so now that trick probably wont work.

I'm currently grandfathered into unlimited data with my Verizon phone. If I want to upgrade they'll force me out of that. So, I don't know what to do when I decide I want a new phone. Does anyone offer an actual unlimited data plan?

Fark Verizon and fark Comcast.

I have a "choice" between Comcast and shiatty AT&T DSL. Although apparently AT&T is running fiber to my area. I should probably look into that. Anyone have any experience or knowledge with AT&Ts fiber service?

I have unlimited data on my phone with T-mobile. However, they know when you are tethering, so you need hotspot to be able to connect your devices to your phone's wifi. So I added 4.5 GB of hotspot to my account as well. The phone itself can do what it wants with unlimited data. But all my wifi devices share a pool of the 4.5 GB hotspot whenever I tether. Allegedly, if you use droid, there are apps and hacks to trick t-mobile into not detecting when you tether. They never worked for me.

For tethering, usually just switching to a CM Based rom is all that's necessary..maybe an apn + sqlite tweak for T Mobile using a stock rom.

I have AT&T, don't have a tethering plan, can't tether stock (without tweaking a sqlite db), and tether everyday with my Atrix HD running a custom rom. Currently using the latest Kit Kat Carbon Rom.

My CyanogenMod Roms didn't block their detection at all. T-Mobile is using something that sees through everything I throw at it.

ThatBillmanGuy:skeevy420: ThatBillmanGuy: CtrlAltDestroy: Comcast has been doing this shiat for a long time now. Go ahead and google "comcast throttle Netflix". They aren't throttling it by textbook means but they leave the system in such a way that it get's terribly slow. Using a proxy/VPN will restore the speed. I can tether through my phone and have perfect HD streams. I go back to Comcast and it's barely 480p. Although my phone is a Verizon phone so now that trick probably wont work.

I'm currently grandfathered into unlimited data with my Verizon phone. If I want to upgrade they'll force me out of that. So, I don't know what to do when I decide I want a new phone. Does anyone offer an actual unlimited data plan?

Fark Verizon and fark Comcast.

I have a "choice" between Comcast and shiatty AT&T DSL. Although apparently AT&T is running fiber to my area. I should probably look into that. Anyone have any experience or knowledge with AT&Ts fiber service?

I have unlimited data on my phone with T-mobile. However, they know when you are tethering, so you need hotspot to be able to connect your devices to your phone's wifi. So I added 4.5 GB of hotspot to my account as well. The phone itself can do what it wants with unlimited data. But all my wifi devices share a pool of the 4.5 GB hotspot whenever I tether. Allegedly, if you use droid, there are apps and hacks to trick t-mobile into not detecting when you tether. They never worked for me.

For tethering, usually just switching to a CM Based rom is all that's necessary..maybe an apn + sqlite tweak for T Mobile using a stock rom.

I have AT&T, don't have a tethering plan, can't tether stock (without tweaking a sqlite db), and tether everyday with my Atrix HD running a custom rom. Currently using the latest Kit Kat Carbon Rom.

My CyanogenMod Roms didn't block their detection at all. T-Mobile is using something that sees through everything I throw at it.

I have a note 2 and Jedi Knight. I don't have any issues sharing my hotspot with pretty much anything, for what it's worth.

ThatBillmanGuy:skeevy420: ThatBillmanGuy: CtrlAltDestroy: Comcast has been doing this shiat for a long time now. Go ahead and google "comcast throttle Netflix". They aren't throttling it by textbook means but they leave the system in such a way that it get's terribly slow. Using a proxy/VPN will restore the speed. I can tether through my phone and have perfect HD streams. I go back to Comcast and it's barely 480p. Although my phone is a Verizon phone so now that trick probably wont work.

I'm currently grandfathered into unlimited data with my Verizon phone. If I want to upgrade they'll force me out of that. So, I don't know what to do when I decide I want a new phone. Does anyone offer an actual unlimited data plan?

Fark Verizon and fark Comcast.

I have a "choice" between Comcast and shiatty AT&T DSL. Although apparently AT&T is running fiber to my area. I should probably look into that. Anyone have any experience or knowledge with AT&Ts fiber service?

I have unlimited data on my phone with T-mobile. However, they know when you are tethering, so you need hotspot to be able to connect your devices to your phone's wifi. So I added 4.5 GB of hotspot to my account as well. The phone itself can do what it wants with unlimited data. But all my wifi devices share a pool of the 4.5 GB hotspot whenever I tether. Allegedly, if you use droid, there are apps and hacks to trick t-mobile into not detecting when you tether. They never worked for me.

For tethering, usually just switching to a CM Based rom is all that's necessary..maybe an apn + sqlite tweak for T Mobile using a stock rom.

I have AT&T, don't have a tethering plan, can't tether stock (without tweaking a sqlite db), and tether everyday with my Atrix HD running a custom rom. Currently using the latest Kit Kat Carbon Rom.

My CyanogenMod Roms didn't block their detection at all. T-Mobile is using something that sees through everything I throw at it.

What phone do you have? Only asking because tethering works with T-Mobile on the Atrix HD using custom roms, at least according to the forums.

With Atrix HD AT&T stock, there's a checkin sent when tethering is active, we change a 1 to a 0 in a sqlite db to disable the checkin command. The non AT&T stock roms don't have the checkin and tether with no tweaking, even for AT&T users.

With some carriers, phone/Internet and tethering use different APNs. Might need to remove the tether apn and add tethering permission to the normal one (usually just have to put tether near the end).

For me you can replace tether with wifi hotspot and the fix is identical.

The U.S. is rapidly approaching third world communication status. It's truly embarrassing. Broadband infrastructure should be classified as a public utility, just like electricity and telephone lines. The telecoms are never going to upgrade, as they have no pressure to do so from any kind of competition. We're steadily becoming the laughing stock of the first world.

SithLord:CtrlAltDestroy: Comcast has been doing this shiat for a long time now. Go ahead and google "comcast throttle Netflix". They aren't throttling it by textbook means but they leave the system in such a way that it get's terribly slow. Using a proxy/VPN will restore the speed. I can tether through my phone and have perfect HD streams. I go back to Comcast and it's barely 480p. Although my phone is a Verizon phone so now that trick probably wont work.

I'm currently grandfathered into unlimited data with my Verizon phone. If I want to upgrade they'll force me out of that. So, I don't know what to do when I decide I want a new phone. Does anyone offer an actual unlimited data plan?

Fark Verizon and fark Comcast.

I have a "choice" between Comcast and shiatty AT&T DSL. Although apparently AT&T is running fiber to my area. I should probably look into that. Anyone have any experience or knowledge with AT&Ts fiber service?

No one offers unlimited data anymore. I went to upgrade my phone and was told, "Hey, your unlimited data plan doesn't exist anymore." I said that's fine, you'll just grandfather me in like always. He then goes on to say, "Not anymore, you can get the 6GB plan."

I barely use 1GB a month anyway since I don't tether or use it as a hotspot.

Nope,

Sprint still offers truly unlimited data. And yeah, it works fine for me. I'm not getting into a 'who has the shiattiest wireless provider' contest. AT&T doesn't work here save for a crappy voice signal, TMO won't work at all and VZW is marginal at best. So, Sprint it is for us.

We do have VZ DSL 7/1 and it works just fine. Sure, i'd love something faster on the upload side but everything works well and it tends to stay up and running even when power is out which is nice.

skeevy420:ThatBillmanGuy: skeevy420: ThatBillmanGuy: CtrlAltDestroy: Comcast has been doing this shiat for a long time now. Go ahead and google "comcast throttle Netflix". They aren't throttling it by textbook means but they leave the system in such a way that it get's terribly slow. Using a proxy/VPN will restore the speed. I can tether through my phone and have perfect HD streams. I go back to Comcast and it's barely 480p. Although my phone is a Verizon phone so now that trick probably wont work.

I'm currently grandfathered into unlimited data with my Verizon phone. If I want to upgrade they'll force me out of that. So, I don't know what to do when I decide I want a new phone. Does anyone offer an actual unlimited data plan?

Fark Verizon and fark Comcast.

I have a "choice" between Comcast and shiatty AT&T DSL. Although apparently AT&T is running fiber to my area. I should probably look into that. Anyone have any experience or knowledge with AT&Ts fiber service?

I have unlimited data on my phone with T-mobile. However, they know when you are tethering, so you need hotspot to be able to connect your devices to your phone's wifi. So I added 4.5 GB of hotspot to my account as well. The phone itself can do what it wants with unlimited data. But all my wifi devices share a pool of the 4.5 GB hotspot whenever I tether. Allegedly, if you use droid, there are apps and hacks to trick t-mobile into not detecting when you tether. They never worked for me.

For tethering, usually just switching to a CM Based rom is all that's necessary..maybe an apn + sqlite tweak for T Mobile using a stock rom.

I have AT&T, don't have a tethering plan, can't tether stock (without tweaking a sqlite db), and tether everyday with my Atrix HD running a custom rom. Currently using the latest Kit Kat Carbon Rom.

My CyanogenMod Roms didn't block their detection at all. T-Mobile is using something that sees through everything I throw at it.

What phone do you have? Only asking because tethering works with T-Mobile on the Atrix HD using custom roms, at least according to the forums.

With Atrix HD AT&T stock, there's a checkin sent when tethering is active, we change a 1 to a 0 in a sqlite db to disable the checkin command. The non AT&T stock roms don't have the checkin and tether with no tweaking, even for AT&T users.

With some carriers, phone/Internet and tethering use different APNs. Might need to remove the tether apn and add tethering permission to the normal one (usually just have to put tether near the end).

For me you can replace tether with wifi hotspot and the fix is identical.

A galaxy s2. I've used cyanogen mod 9 and above, and everytime I got the "you need to activate tmobile hotspot" message on my browser when tethering to the computer. I haven't tried Jedi knight yet. But the s2 now boot loops and won't stay on.

CtrlAltDestroy:Comcast has been doing this shiat for a long time now. Go ahead and google "comcast throttle Netflix". They aren't throttling it by textbook means but they leave the system in such a way that it get's terribly slow. Using a proxy/VPN will restore the speed. I can tether through my phone and have perfect HD streams. I go back to Comcast and it's barely 480p. Although my phone is a Verizon phone so now that trick probably wont work.

I'm currently grandfathered into unlimited data with my Verizon phone. If I want to upgrade they'll force me out of that. So, I don't know what to do when I decide I want a new phone. Does anyone offer an actual unlimited data plan?

Fark Verizon and fark Comcast.

I have a "choice" between Comcast and shiatty AT&T DSL. Although apparently AT&T is running fiber to my area. I should probably look into that. Anyone have any experience or knowledge with AT&Ts fiber service?

If you have a 4g LTE phone from Verizon with their new sim cards (I say new because the cdma network never had sims on verizon), you should be able to buy unlocked phones and transfer your sim to it like consumers do on any other carrier. Google sells a bunch of unlocked phones directly from their website. iPhone 5s has a new type of sim card I believe (not sure, need a fact check on that) but your sim may work in the iPhone 5, no idea.

CtrlAltDestroy:Comcast has been doing this shiat for a long time now. Go ahead and google "comcast throttle Netflix". They aren't throttling it by textbook means but they leave the system in such a way that it get's terribly slow. Using a proxy/VPN will restore the speed. I can tether through my phone and have perfect HD streams. I go back to Comcast and it's barely 480p. Although my phone is a Verizon phone so now that trick probably wont work.

I'm currently grandfathered into unlimited data with my Verizon phone. If I want to upgrade they'll force me out of that. So, I don't know what to do when I decide I want a new phone. Does anyone offer an actual unlimited data plan?

Fark Verizon and fark Comcast.

I have a "choice" between Comcast and shiatty AT&T DSL. Although apparently AT&T is running fiber to my area. I should probably look into that. Anyone have any experience or knowledge with AT&Ts fiber service?

I went from DSL to Uverse. I have to say, it's worth it. It's affordable, and it does better than Cox Cable did. Three roomates playing first person shooters on the same account with no problem.

geek_mars:The U.S. is rapidly approaching third world communication status. It's truly embarrassing. Broadband infrastructure should be classified as a public utility, just like electricity and telephone lines. The telecoms are never going to upgrade, as they have no pressure to do so from any kind of competition. We're steadily becoming the laughing stock of the first world.

CtrlAltDestroy:Comcast has been doing this shiat for a long time now. Go ahead and google "comcast throttle Netflix". They aren't throttling it by textbook means but they leave the system in such a way that it get's terribly slow. Using a proxy/VPN will restore the speed. I can tether through my phone and have perfect HD streams. I go back to Comcast and it's barely 480p. Although my phone is a Verizon phone so now that trick probably wont work.

I'm currently grandfathered into unlimited data with my Verizon phone. If I want to upgrade they'll force me out of that. So, I don't know what to do when I decide I want a new phone. Does anyone offer an actual unlimited data plan?

Fark Verizon and fark Comcast.

I have a "choice" between Comcast and shiatty AT&T DSL. Although apparently AT&T is running fiber to my area. I should probably look into that. Anyone have any experience or knowledge with AT&Ts fiber service?

We have AT&T U-verse (which is their fiber service) Only for Internet- we don't use a landline phone or cable TV. Anyhow, the speeds have been fine- we generally get the speed we're paying for. No problems with streaming services, either. (We use an AppleTV for streaming, usually Netflix, sometimes Hulu, sometimes others) Everything works fine. However... AT&T, as per usual, has the world's worst customer service and tech support, and they have tried sneaky shiat with regards to what we're paying a couple times. This has always been fixed with a phone call to customer service by my wife, but it's still bullshiat that she's had to do that.

So... from what I've heard about Comcast, you'll get a better connection, but you're on your own with everything else.

SithLord:No one offers unlimited data anymore. I went to upgrade my phone and was told, "Hey, your unlimited data plan doesn't exist anymore." I said that's fine, you'll just grandfather me in like always. He then goes on to say, "Not anymore, you can get the 6GB plan."

I barely use 1GB a month anyway since I don't tether or use it as a hotspot

A number of lawsuits have ensured that if you once had an unlimited plan, you can regain that unlimited plan. I forget what the exact cases are, but if you either go into the AT&T store or call them up and mention said case(s) they are very, very motivated to get that unlimited plan back on your account.

I personally don't use tons of data either, but the grandfathered unlimited plan costs less than the 2+ GB plan that I actually need (I do have some months that go over 1GB). Hence why I know.

Greek:We have AT&T U-verse (which is their fiber service) Only for Internet- we don't use a landline phone or cable TV. Anyhow, the speeds have been fine- we generally get the speed we're paying for. No problems with streaming services, either. (We use an AppleTV for streaming, usually Netflix, sometimes Hulu, sometimes others) Everything works fine. However... AT&T, as per usual, has the world's worst customer service and tech support, and they have tried sneaky shiat with regards to what we're paying a couple times. This has always been fixed with a phone call to customer service by my wife, but it's still bullshiat that she's had to do that.

So... from what I've heard about Comcast, you'll get a better connection, but you're on your own with everything else.

There's a third option for DSL in most areas, that being a third-party local DSL reseller. Not every area has it, but quite a few have ISPs that basically resell AT&T's bandwidth without AT&T's stupid policies. I'm using a local ISP that offers the same speeds as AT&T for maybe $3/month more, but with no bandwidth caps, no "we noticed you seem to be torrenting" letters, and Static IP. When I call tech support half the time I get the owner of the company; it's that kind of ISP.

YMMV of course, but if you go poking around you're likely to find a local alternative. AT&T and other DSL-based ISPs are usually required to offer their bandwidth for resale, and smaller ISPs take advantage of that.

CtrlAltDestroy:BTW, I'm paying for a 50mb/s service with Comcast. There is NO excuse for sub 480p quality and taking 2-3 minutes to buffer after loading a new video or skipping ahead/behind EVERY SINGLE EVENING. But only the evening. Mornings are fine. Only Netlix and Youtube are effected during those hours. Other streaming sites are perfectly fine while at the same time those 2 are slow as hell.

I think Time Warner is doing the same thing. I come home, fire up a Netflix stream on my Roku and it'll start out good, then slow down and rebuffer at a lower bit rate. I can switch over to Amazon on Demand and have no problems. Clear picture, high bit rate and little buffering.

Hence the problem with Netflix's business model. They are relying on their competition to deliver their service.

Cpl.D:This is why I'm glad I work for RCN. We don't throttle, we don't "traffic shape", none of that crap.

There's a reason, folks, behind the throttling and crap. Here's the rationale behind it. All the local connections in an area merge into a larger pipe on the way to the fiber optic backbone. Let's call this collection point a "node" for the sake of ease here. Now, your average provider, given a node capable of handling 300 local connections, will sell 400 or 450 connection to that node, with the aim of maximizing profits and the pretense that it's OK because not everyone's going to be surfing at any given time. Technically true, but that's where you start seeing peak hour issues. Everyone gets home, and starts watching cat videos off YouTube or whatever, and suddenly your 50 Mbit connection is acting like a 5. So to make it look like their service doesn't suck as bad to their average customer, they'll throttle the piss out of their heaviest users. The way RCN does it, is if that node can handle 300 connections, we sell 200. You wanna throw on bittorrent and peg that connection to the red, and leave it that way for a few months? Go ahead. Only reaction on our side of the house is going to be a cursory check, at most, to see that your bandwidth is fine. If more people need connections in that area, we go out there and build another freaking node. Working for a non-big-three company is great.

/loves getting calls where people pussyfoot around the "bittorrent" or "peer to peer file sharing" words//so I'll say 'em first///Also, fark Verizon and their anti-net-neutrality campaign

$39 for a 50 mb connection? Y'all need to expand to FL. I'm paying Comcast $80/month right now for something similar.

I'd still like to know how the throttling is done. Are they dropping packets to force retransmission, or they forging RST packets to disrupt streams they want to go away. Because I doubt they are buffering packets and sending them on delayed.

Nemo's Brother:TuteTibiImperes: Headso: internet folks need to get on it like the NRA does and start punishing every single official who votes against net neutrality or even speaks against it, time to ruin careers.

I have very little positive to say about the gun lobby, but you're right, dang it if they aren't effective.

Companies like Microsoft, Google, and obviously Netflix are in the pro-net-neutrality camp, so there's some big money to make a push.

But Al Franken and the Hollywood Left are against it and also have a lot of money.

yukichigai:SithLord: No one offers unlimited data anymore. I went to upgrade my phone and was told, "Hey, your unlimited data plan doesn't exist anymore." I said that's fine, you'll just grandfather me in like always. He then goes on to say, "Not anymore, you can get the 6GB plan."

I barely use 1GB a month anyway since I don't tether or use it as a hotspot

A number of lawsuits have ensured that if you once had an unlimited plan, you can regain that unlimited plan. I forget what the exact cases are, but if you either go into the AT&T store or call them up and mention said case(s) they are very, very motivated to get that unlimited plan back on your account.

I personally don't use tons of data either, but the grandfathered unlimited plan costs less than the 2+ GB plan that I actually need (I do have some months that go over 1GB). Hence why I know.

Greek: We have AT&T U-verse (which is their fiber service) Only for Internet- we don't use a landline phone or cable TV. Anyhow, the speeds have been fine- we generally get the speed we're paying for. No problems with streaming services, either. (We use an AppleTV for streaming, usually Netflix, sometimes Hulu, sometimes others) Everything works fine. However... AT&T, as per usual, has the world's worst customer service and tech support, and they have tried sneaky shiat with regards to what we're paying a couple times. This has always been fixed with a phone call to customer service by my wife, but it's still bullshiat that she's had to do that.

So... from what I've heard about Comcast, you'll get a better connection, but you're on your own with everything else.

There's a third option for DSL in most areas, that being a third-party local DSL reseller. Not every area has it, but quite a few have ISPs that basically resell AT&T's bandwidth without AT&T's stupid policies. I'm using a local ISP that offers the same speeds as AT&T for maybe $3/month more, but with no bandwidth caps, no "we noticed you seem to be torrenting" letter ...

I am a tech manager at AT&T and generally the only time an unlimited plan gets removed is if you upgrade your phone at an authorized agent and not at an official AT&T store.

No one has ever been instructed to tell a customer that they have to change from an unlimited data plan. More likely an agent who did not know what they were doing, or their commission was based on revenue from a new rate plan.

All you have to do is call within 60 days and your plan will be put back the way it was.

I have the same problem everyone else is talking about but netflix is only slowing down on my Apple TV. When I use Chromecast it works perfectly and ramps up to 5mb down full HD connection.

On the Apple TV from about 4pm-12am it will start out in Super HD fine and then about a minute into the show it will suddenly go crazy and sit in buffering mode for the next few minutes until it barely gets to 480p. You can use the free program on Netflix to see how much bandwidth your connection is using at that time. It's called "Example Short" and it will display bandwidth usage.

So on Apple TV my connection sucks during that time frame but if I switch to Chromecast it works perfectly. I don't know if it's a slowness from my provider of Time Warner or if it's an Apple TV issue and Netflix's app not working as it should or some other item but those are my findings.

I tried setting up an IPv6 tunnel but it does not help in any way but that might be because there is no IPv6 traffic on Time warner yet out here. Anyway it's cut net neutrality needs to get some steam behind it and things need to start getting put into law.

moistD:CtrlAltDestroy: Comcast has been doing this shiat for a long time now. Go ahead and google "comcast throttle Netflix". They aren't throttling it by textbook means but they leave the system in such a way that it get's terribly slow. Using a proxy/VPN will restore the speed. I can tether through my phone and have perfect HD streams. I go back to Comcast and it's barely 480p. Although my phone is a Verizon phone so now that trick probably wont work.

I'm currently grandfathered into unlimited data with my Verizon phone. If I want to upgrade they'll force me out of that. So, I don't know what to do when I decide I want a new phone. Does anyone offer an actual unlimited data plan?

Fark Verizon and fark Comcast.

I have a "choice" between Comcast and shiatty AT&T DSL. Although apparently AT&T is running fiber to my area. I should probably look into that. Anyone have any experience or knowledge with AT&Ts fiber service?

If you have a 4g LTE phone from Verizon with their new sim cards (I say new because the cdma network never had sims on verizon), you should be able to buy unlocked phones and transfer your sim to it like consumers do on any other carrier. Google sells a bunch of unlocked phones directly from their website. iPhone 5s has a new type of sim card I believe (not sure, need a fact check on that) but your sim may work in the iPhone 5, no idea.

Do not listen to this person that have no idea what they are talking about. When it comes to Sprint and Verizon they will not activate a CDMA phone unless they sold it. That phone has an ESN/IMEI and unless it is in their database they will not activate the device. Yes Verizon 4G Phones use a sim card and yes you can toss them around to any verizon 4G phone/device you want as long as it came directly from Verizon. Verizon has never reall embraced the Nexus line of phones, other than the one galaxy nexus from a few years ago, nor do any of the Google Play Edition Phones work on verizon. Now you can buy a Nexus 5 and activate it on Sprint pretty easy, there are multiple threads about it but it can be completed.

Now the cool thing about most of verizon's Android devices and their curent iPhone 5/5S/5C is that they are unlocked on the GSM side of the phone. So you can take that phone and hook it up to any GSM carrier you like. The iPhone 5S/5C from Verizon actually has enough radio bands in them that it will do LTE on Tmobile and ATT perfectly fine out of the box. In fact i am using a Verizon iPhone 5S on ATT right now with out a hitch. I manage phones/tablets for a corporation so I get to mess around with this stuff all the time and this was the best loop hole that Verizon could ever do since it lets me toss devices all around from Verizon to our ATT account with out an issue or an ounce of trouble. I will also say Tmobile's LTE speed in Dallas here is using the new 20 x 20 setup which means I am seeing speeds of 60-80mbs down easily at all times of the day. It is truly amazing to see that much bandwidth in a wireless connection. I haven't seen that since 4G from verizon started testing here and they gave me one of the Pantech UML290 cards and told me to give it a run. I was getting 100mbs down in a heart beat and blowing my home FIOS connection out of the water.

So if you are buying a replacement 4G device for Verizon make sure you are getting one that was original sold from them or it won't activate and you will be screwed.

TheGhostofFarkPast:I tried setting up an IPv6 tunnel but it does not help in any way but that might be because there is no IPv6 traffic on Time warner yet out here. Anyway it's cut net neutrality needs to get some steam behind it and things need to start getting put into law.

Vlad_the_Inaner:TheGhostofFarkPast: I tried setting up an IPv6 tunnel but it does not help in any way but that might be because there is no IPv6 traffic on Time warner yet out here. Anyway it's cut net neutrality needs to get some steam behind it and things need to start getting put into law.

https://tunnelbroker.net/ Hurricane Electric's loss leader.

Then set up a 6rd tunnel, a type of 6to4.

/not for the faint of heart, but it's free and it works//some routers can do 6rd out of the box

When I have more time I will mess around with it some more but it might be because I didn't reset every device after I setup the tunnel or that I didn't have the right DNS on the apple tv in my living room. For me though I saw no improvement for the IPv6 tunnel.

TheGhostofFarkPast:Vlad_the_Inaner: TheGhostofFarkPast: I tried setting up an IPv6 tunnel but it does not help in any way but that might be because there is no IPv6 traffic on Time warner yet out here. Anyway it's cut net neutrality needs to get some steam behind it and things need to start getting put into law.

https://tunnelbroker.net/ Hurricane Electric's loss leader.

Then set up a 6rd tunnel, a type of 6to4.

/not for the faint of heart, but it's free and it works//some routers can do 6rd out of the box

Yeah I already set all that up. I used this guidehttp://digiex.net/guides-reviews/guides-tutorials/networking-guides/ 13 103-how-setup-ipv6-tunnel-apple-airport-extreme-time-capsule-router.ht ml

I still didn't see any improvement whatsoever.

When I have more time I will mess around with it some more but it might be because I didn't reset every device after I setup the tunnel or that I didn't have the right DNS on the apple tv in my living room. For me though I saw no improvement for the IPv6 tunnel.

Having a DNS that answers AAAA inquires is important. HE's has free one, so does google.

digistil:TuteTibiImperes: Headso: internet folks need to get on it like the NRA does and start punishing every single official who votes against net neutrality or even speaks against it, time to ruin careers.

I have very little positive to say about the gun lobby, but you're right, dang it if they aren't effective.

Companies like Microsoft, Google, and obviously Netflix are in the pro-net-neutrality camp, so there's some big money to make a push.

You realize they've been siding with Verizon, right?

Not really. They were attempting to come up with a set of voluntary rules to preserve the core concepts of net neutrality because they didn't see the FCC rules as enforceable.

I don't particularly agree with that stance, but they aren't buying into Verizon's claims kit and caboodle either.

The best course of action would be for the FCC to just classify ISPs as common carriers, and thus regain full regulatory powers over them.

TuteTibiImperes:Cpl.D: This is why I'm glad I work for RCN. We don't throttle, we don't "traffic shape", none of that crap.

There's a reason, folks, behind the throttling and crap. Here's the rationale behind it. All the local connections in an area merge into a larger pipe on the way to the fiber optic backbone. Let's call this collection point a "node" for the sake of ease here. Now, your average provider, given a node capable of handling 300 local connections, will sell 400 or 450 connection to that node, with the aim of maximizing profits and the pretense that it's OK because not everyone's going to be surfing at any given time. Technically true, but that's where you start seeing peak hour issues. Everyone gets home, and starts watching cat videos off YouTube or whatever, and suddenly your 50 Mbit connection is acting like a 5. So to make it look like their service doesn't suck as bad to their average customer, they'll throttle the piss out of their heaviest users. The way RCN does it, is if that node can handle 300 connections, we sell 200. You wanna throw on bittorrent and peg that connection to the red, and leave it that way for a few months? Go ahead. Only reaction on our side of the house is going to be a cursory check, at most, to see that your bandwidth is fine. If more people need connections in that area, we go out there and build another freaking node. Working for a non-big-three company is great.

/loves getting calls where people pussyfoot around the "bittorrent" or "peer to peer file sharing" words//so I'll say 'em first///Also, fark Verizon and their anti-net-neutrality campaign

$39 for a 50 mb connection? Y'all need to expand to FL. I'm paying Comcast $80/month right now for something similar.

I'd be happy if they just expanded to the far suburbs. Doing anything out towards Kane county anytime soon?

Cpl.D:This is why I'm glad I work for RCN. We don't throttle, we don't "traffic shape", none of that crap.

There's a reason, folks, behind the throttling and crap. Here's the rationale behind it. All the local connections in an area merge into a larger pipe on the way to the fiber optic backbone. Let's call this collection point a "node" for the sake of ease here. Now, your average provider, given a node capable of handling 300 local connections, will sell 400 or 450 connection to that node, with the aim of maximizing profits and the pretense that it's OK because not everyone's going to be surfing at any given time. Technically true, but that's where you start seeing peak hour issues. Everyone gets home, and starts watching cat videos off YouTube or whatever, and suddenly your 50 Mbit connection is acting like a 5. So to make it look like their service doesn't suck as bad to their average customer, they'll throttle the piss out of their heaviest users. The way RCN does it, is if that node can handle 300 connections, we sell 200. You wanna throw on bittorrent and peg that connection to the red, and leave it that way for a few months? Go ahead. Only reaction on our side of the house is going to be a cursory check, at most, to see that your bandwidth is fine. If more people need connections in that area, we go out there and build another freaking node. Working for a non-big-three company is great.

/loves getting calls where people pussyfoot around the "bittorrent" or "peer to peer file sharing" words//so I'll say 'em first///Also, fark Verizon and their anti-net-neutrality campaign

And this is why I hate that I moved out of an RCN service area. When are you guys hitting the NE Philly suburbs?

Cpl.D:This is why I'm glad I work for RCN. We don't throttle, we don't "traffic shape", none of that crap.

There's a reason, folks, behind the throttling and crap. Here's the rationale behind it. All the local connections in an area merge into a larger pipe on the way to the fiber optic backbone. Let's call this collection point a "node" for the sake of ease here. Now, your average provider, given a node capable of handling 300 local connections, will sell 400 or 450 connection to that node, with the aim of maximizing profits and the pretense that it's OK because not everyone's going to be surfing at any given time. Technically true, but that's where you start seeing peak hour issues. Everyone gets home, and starts watching cat videos off YouTube or whatever, and suddenly your 50 Mbit connection is acting like a 5. So to make it look like their service doesn't suck as bad to their average customer, they'll throttle the piss out of their heaviest users. The way RCN does it, is if that node can handle 300 connections, we sell 200. You wanna throw on bittorrent and peg that connection to the red, and leave it that way for a few months? Go ahead. Only reaction on our side of the house is going to be a cursory check, at most, to see that your bandwidth is fine. If more people need connections in that area, we go out there and build another freaking node. Working for a non-big-three company is great.

/loves getting calls where people pussyfoot around the "bittorrent" or "peer to peer file sharing" words//so I'll say 'em first///Also, fark Verizon and their anti-net-neutrality campaign

...so that's why you have so much time to make those insanely complicated Kerbal spacecraft :P

TuteTibiImperes:digistil: TuteTibiImperes: Headso: internet folks need to get on it like the NRA does and start punishing every single official who votes against net neutrality or even speaks against it, time to ruin careers.

I have very little positive to say about the gun lobby, but you're right, dang it if they aren't effective.

Companies like Microsoft, Google, and obviously Netflix are in the pro-net-neutrality camp, so there's some big money to make a push.

You realize they've been siding with Verizon, right?

Not really. They were attempting to come up with a set of voluntary rules to preserve the core concepts of net neutrality because they didn't see the FCC rules as enforceable.

I don't particularly agree with that stance, but they aren't buying into Verizon's claims kit and caboodle either.

The best course of action would be for the FCC to just classify ISPs as common carriers, and thus regain full regulatory powers over them.

Your link clearly states Google sides with Verizon when it comes to Net Neutrality.